 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. We have a beautiful topic today that we are going to spend the next 30 or so minutes talking about. It's a topic that I really enjoy studying and one that I really enjoy learning about, but sometimes it can be a little bit daunting I think in some circles, the way we talk about and the way we discuss it. We're talking about sacrifice, okay? Sacrifice. Before we start, maybe let's see if let's test out my teacher-student theory. Would anyone here like to give me their one sentence definition of what does sacrifice mean? If you are explaining yes. Very good. Giving up something for something else. That's very good. Mashallah, that's a good definition. I'm gonna add to your definition just a little bit. The formal definition of sacrifice is to give up something you value. So give up something valuable for something else that you deem to be more important and more valuable, okay? So you're giving up something valuable for something else more valuable and more important. That is the definition of a sacrifice. There are many amongst the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who personified this trait. And of course the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, himself also personified this trait. Today inshallah ta'ala we are going to be looking at the example of Sumayyah radiallahu ta'ala anha, who has the distinct honor of being the first martyr of the nation of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We're going to start off with just some facts. I'm gonna give you some facts. The reason I'm gonna do this instead of just telling her story is I want you to have a context. It's important when we study the Sahaba to paint a picture of what they were living in. Who was this person? What was their society? What was their context? So that we can really appreciate what this person went through. Okay, y'all ready? So I'm going to tell you three things about Sumayyah radiallahu ta'ala anha that I want you to remember. Number one, her age. Sumayyah radiallahu ta'ala anha was about 20 years older than the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. How many years older? 20 years. She was also a black Abyssinian woman, so originally from Ethiopia, modern day Ethiopia. She was a black Abyssinian woman. So one, 20 years older than the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Two, she was a black Abyssinian woman. The third thing that you need to know about her is that she was a slave. She was a slave. She was owned by a man named Abu Hrdefa ibn al-Mughira. Okay, so what are the three things we're remembering about her? Number one, age, 20 years older than the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Number two, she's a black Abyssinian woman, so she's not from Makkah, right? Number three, she's a slave to a man named Abu Hrdefa ibn al-Mughira. Sumayyah radiallahu ta'ala anha was married to a man named Yasir. Yasir radiallahu ta'ala anhu, also Sahaba, or Sahabi. Yasir was actually an immigrant to Makkah from Yemen. So he wasn't originally from Makkah either. He was from Yemen. And when he came to Makkah, he sought the protection of Abu Hrdefa, who owned Sumayyah. And so it is Abu Hrdefa who said, yes, you can be under my protection, and here you can marry my slave woman. And that's how the two of them were married, and they had a son named Ammar ibn Yasir. Ammar was about the same age as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Okay, so everybody with me so far, we've painted a picture of the family. Now the next thing we have to do is we have to talk politics. Now y'all know how we Texans feel about Californians, so I'll just talk about Makkah and politics today, and we'll leave off American politics. Okay, so let's understand what was the politics of Makkah when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam began his message. Okay, now the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is in a tribe called Quresh. Quresh is made up of many little clans, like little families that are within the tribe of Quresh. All right. The clan that Simea is owned by is called Banu Mahzum. Okay, so Simea is from a clan called Banu Mahzum. What's the name of the Prophet s clan? Banu Hashim. Okay, so you have Banu Mahzum, Banu Hashim. You all have to realize that Banu Mahzum and Banu Hashim are rivals. They've had this rivalry going on for decades, right? So Banu Mahzum looks at Banu Hashim and they're like, Oh, y'all think you're wealthier than us? We're going to show you our wealth is more. Oh, okay. So y'all think you're better at poetry. We're going to go ahead and we're going to show you when the next poetry slam comes up, what we can do. Oh, you guys think you're more hospitable? Well, we're going to come out when the pilgrims come out, we're going to roll out the welcome mat like nobody's seen, right? Banu Mahzum always wants to compete with Banu Hashim. And they're neck and neck, right? Banu Mahzum doesn't feel right now that Banu Hashim is better than them until the prophet Salaam comes along and Banu Hashim has a prophet from the eyes of Banu Mahzum. They don't look at it like Allah has blessed us. He sent us a prophet, you know, we're so blessed to be in the presence of the prophet. No, they look at it and they think, Oh, no, if we accept this man, then we have to accept Banu Hashim as an authority over us and they can't have that. So they get very upset and they start a campaign against the prophet Salaam and against the prophethood of the prophet Salaam. Does anyone want to guess who else is in Banu Mahzum who doesn't like the prophet Salaam? Just a wild guess. Abu Jahal. Abu Jahal is one of these members of Banu Mahzum, the clan that Sumeya is in. And he hates Banu Hashim and he hates the prophet Salaam. Imagine how he must feel then when a poor slave woman and her family go against this rivalry and they choose to recognize the truth and accept the prophet Salaam as their leader. Abu Jahal can't take it. He is angry. And he says, I'm going to make an example of these people and all of the people who didn't have any means of protection, they didn't have any family, they were considered the lowest of the low in the society. If we look at Sumeya, she is at a complete disadvantage if you look at socioeconomic status, if you look at family ties, right? She's literally in the worst position possible if you look at it from that perspective. And yet she is intelligent enough to be able to recognize the truth and accept it. While someone like Abu Jahal with all of his status and all of his wealth and all of his position was not able to accept the truth. So Abu Jahal gets really enraged and he starts to torture these people publicly and his goal is to scare other people that if you go against Banu Mahzum, this is what's going to happen to you. And as he is torturing these people, Sumeya and her family publicly, they're not wavering in their resolve. I want us to pause here. I want to ask y'all something. How old was the Prophet ﷺ when he became a prophet and received revelation? 40. So how old was Sumeya? 60. She's 60 years old. And this kind of makes me tear up a little bit because my mom is in her 60s. And I just can't imagine anyone even insulting her, let alone beating her or harming her. Sumeya was in her 60s. And Abu Jahal would come and he would put chainmail on them and leave them out in the sun. He would beat them. He would insult them. He would scream at them. He would tell them to renounce their faith and insult the Prophet ﷺ. But Sumeya and her family, they stood strong and Sumeya would respond to him and say, no, enemy of Allah. I will never do that. And she would insult him. It's narrated that when she accepted Islam, she went to the Prophet ﷺ and she said to him, she said, I bear witness that indeed you are the Messenger of Allah. Your promise is true. You see the amount of faith she had. She'd had no doubt in the Prophet ﷺ or in his message. And that faith gave her strength. And we know that the stronger she got, the angrier Abu Jahal got until it got to the day when he told her that she must curse the Prophet ﷺ in public and she refused and spat in his face. And at this point, he took his spear and ran it through her midsection and killed her. And so Sumeya became the first martyr, an old black woman who was a slave who had never seen any good in this life. At the very end of her life, Allah shows her her position in Jannah because we know that the martyr has shown their position in Jannah. So at the end of her life, this is where Allah gives her glad tidings and congratulates her and shows her the beautiful future that she is now embarking on. Her husband, Yasir, was even older than her and he died actually soon after she passed away. He was very frail as well and his body couldn't take it. And we know that their son, Ammar, eventually said the words that Abu Jahal had commanded him to say. And the Prophet ﷺ, what did he say to Ammar? When Ammar was feeling so sad and so devastated and traumatized, the Prophet ﷺ told him if they tell you to do that again, go ahead and say the words. Because I know it's not in your heart. Right? Now I want us to just come back for a minute. We were in Makkah thousands of years ago. Let's come back to California in 2022. And let's ask ourselves about sacrifice now that we have heard the legacy that came before us. We said that it is giving up something you value for something you deem to be more important. So May Allah Almighty gave up her life. Before that, she gave up her comfort, her safety, her dignity was taken from her. She gave up a lot. And these are valuable things. That's the first thing I want us to recognize about sacrifice. It does require us to give up something we care about. It's important to realize this because sometimes in our own lives when we are called to sacrifice for the sake of Allah, we have a hard time recognizing that we're losing something as well. And sometimes that loss comes with a feeling of grief. Right? Think about, for example, somebody who has an amazing job. They love their co-workers. The pay is wonderful. And then they start to do some research and they say, you know what? This business that I'm working at is not a halal business. Right? It's not a great place to be working. The business itself doesn't align with my faith. They quit their job. They did something, they left something for the sake of something more important, but there is still a loss and it's okay to acknowledge that. Right? I say this because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam cared very much about Ammar and the loss that he had gone through when he lost his mother and then his father. I want you to think what the state of Ammar, radiallahu alayhi wa sallam, who must have been. Because realize that after his mother died, Abu Jahl continued walking the streets of Makkah, a free man for many years. Right? Abu Jahl died in the battle of Badr, but his mother was one of the very first believers and died in the very early days of Islam. So it's probably another five, six, seven years before the battle of Badr. What must it be like to watch the man who brutally tortured and murdered one's mother just walking around in his tribe? No arrest, no trial, no justice, no care from the society. It was a great loss. But people didn't look at Ammar and say, well, your parents are in Jannah. No, people didn't tell him that. They comforted him. And when Abu Jahl was actually killed in the battle of Badr, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made a point to find Ammar and tell him that Allah has killed the one who murdered your mother. Know that that justice that you needed, that trial that you longed for, Allah has taken care of it for you. Right? Because he lost something valuable. It's okay to acknowledge that we have lost something that was valuable to us. The second part of our definition is you're giving up something you value for, something that is more valuable and more important. What was more valuable and more important to Suma'ya, radiAllah, ta'ala anha? What was it that she longed for? I need y'all to be louder. Her faith, what us? Jannah, what us? Allah Azza wa Jal, right? The pleasure of Allah to stand up for the truth, to stand up for justice, to show others that she would not be moved. Right? Suma'ya, radiAllah, ta'ala anha believed in the promise of Allah. And she stood by it until the end. May Allah s.a.w. be pleased with her. And this is what I wanted us to end with. Because you see, making a sacrifice is not easy. Right? We will all go through something in our lives where we have to make a decision about something that might not be the best for our faith. It could be a job, it could be the company that you keep, it could be where you work, where you live, whatever it is. Right? And in that moment, somebody might say, but I'm so afraid of losing this. I'm so afraid of losing this job and this amazing income. I'm so afraid of losing these friends who I have. Right? I'm afraid of losing this. There's an answer that one might share with them that Allah s.a.w. gives us. You see, here's the thing. Everybody in their life will experience some kind of loss. Right? Life has ups and downs. Nobody's life is perfect. Nobody is 100% happy in this life. Right? Allah s.a.w. promises us and he makes this declaration in Surat al-Baqarah where he says, Allah says that without a doubt, we will test you through some sort of fear that you might face, hunger, a reduction in wealth and even in lives and in fruits. And this is everybody in the world, Muslims and non-Muslims. We're all going to go through trials. What's the difference then between a person of faith like Samayah, and a person who's lacking faith? The difference is the benefit that they get from that trial. Allah s.a.w. says at the end of this statement, Allah s.a.w. says, congratulate those who are steadfast and have resolve. Those who, when some sort of difficulty comes to them, they say, and what is it that the Quran tells us to say at this point? This is not something you say only when someone passes away, but it's something that we actually say during any sort of difficulty. Why? Because it helps to ground us and it gives us a perspective. Indeed, we belong to Allah. Why is this important? Because it reminds me that I might be feeling a loss, but Allah owns me. I belong to Allah. And so I don't really own anything in this life. How can I say I own something and therefore I lost something when everything, even I belong to Allah. So that's the first thing, the first perspective that we have to have. The second perspective is we're returning back to Allah. It reminds me to focus on the bigger picture, right? I might not be worried so much about losing a six-figure job when I think about the Akhira. No six-figure job can buy you the Akhira, the paradise that the Prophet SAW promised Sumayyah and her family. No money can buy that. No status can buy that. No president or king or queen can ask Allah to give you that, right? Once you realize that, then you start to prioritize a little bit more. That thing that we were worried about might become a little less important and pleasing Allah, keeping our faith and moving forward and growing to become better servants of Allah becomes more important to us, right? So we say Allah SAW says those people will have Allah's blessings and His mercy. Those are the ones who are truly guided, right? Allah SAW is giving us a perspective. There's another ayah that's very similar to this that I really like. This ayah is in regards to the Muslims when they are in times of war. So this ayah is particularly talked about in times of war but it can be generalized as well where the Prophet SAW tells the believers don't get tired and don't stop pursuing the enemy. If you're experiencing some sort of loss or you're suffering then realize that they are also experiencing loss and suffering, right? I mean this is a battlefield. Everybody's going to experience loss. There's going to be difficulty but what's the difference between you two? You Muslims, you have hope in something from Allah that they could never hope for. You have hope in something from Allah that they could never hope for. Allah SAW is all-knowing and wise. Allah SAW knows what we're going through, right? He's a rauh. He knows what we're going through and he cares about us. Allah SAW sees the pain. Sometimes people don't understand our sacrifices. Sometimes people belittle our sacrifices because remember we said you're sacrificing something you value. Other people may not value that thing that you sacrificed, right? People are different. You all want to hear an example? I'll give you an example. So I grew up in Saudi Arabia. I was there for 17 years. Then I moved to Iowa for college. Do you know one thing that's in Saudi Arabia that we don't really have in Iowa? You want to guess? Hello? Yes, thank you. Here somebody gets it. Halal meat. So we moved to Iowa and we're basically on this vegetarian diet. I moved with my twin sister. So I'm on this vegetarian diet. Here's my twin sister. Oh my god, it's so hard being vegetarian, so hard to find food. I couldn't understand her suffering. Do you know why? I've been vegetarian since I was five. I don't like the taste of meat. It does not taste like food to me. So I didn't really care. My sister loves this. She always calls this ayah to me. She's like, you need to get to Jannah so you can eat meat and like it. Right? So her sacrifice, I couldn't value it. I mean, I understood she was a little miserable, right? All y'all who eat meat can probably sympathize with her more than I did. But I didn't value it. Yeah, I had my corn. Iowa is corn country and they have great corn, and I really like corn. Right? So I couldn't value her sacrifice. I do understand what the big deal is. There's plenty of food, right? Yeah, some people here are like, you're a terrible sister, right? But that's how I felt. And may Allah s.a.w reward her for her sacrifice and forgive me for being unsympathetic. But people won't always understand what you're going through. But Allah sees it, right? So whenever we are called to stand for what is right, to give up something we value for something even more important, we have to remember that Allah sees us. And Allah understands us better than we understand ourselves. And even if the rest of the world doesn't know what you went through to get to where you are, or they don't appreciate what you went through and they don't acknowledge it, Allah sees it. Allah appreciates it and Allah acknowledges it. So I pray that Allah allows us to be people of true faith who are able to overcome the difficulties that we have in this life because we have hope in Allah in the next life. I pray that Allah s.a.w allows us to look at the example of Suma-e-Rudi, Allah ta'ala anha, our beautiful forerunner in the Deen and allows us to really appreciate what she and her family went through in order for us to be able to inherit this beautiful Deen and to be able to practice it. I pray that Allah s.a.w allows us to be people of true Saba. And Allah s.a.w allows us to be people who when we are going through difficulty, we say with sincerity and we pray to him and we ask him for his guidance. May Allah s.a.w accept all that is said and heard here today, anything that I have said that may have been incorrect. I pray that you all forgive me. I pray Allah s.a.w forgives me and I pray that Allah s.a.w will allow us all to reunite with those we love in Jannah. I pray that Allah s.a.w allows us all to meet the Prophet s.a.w and his companions and Suma-e-Rudi Allah ta'ala anha and to finally thank them for everything they went through for us. May Allah s.a.w make it easy for all of us.